Do you find your favorite cookies missing a nicotine sting? Smoke & Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a new Southern Kitchen fixes that for you, featuring a sugar cookie dough infused with cigar leaves and topped with a boiled down mixture of coconut, molasses, and tobacco water. More
A gluttonous amalgamation of Chef Lee's buttermilk ice cream and lardo corn bread, this milkshake from Smoke & Pickles combines two excellent recipes with a healthy helping of sorghum syrup. More
If umami is the fifth flavor, smoke is the sixth. So says Edward Lee, owner of 610 Magnolia in Louisville, Kentucky, and author of Smoke & Pickles: Recipes and Stories from a new Southern Kitchen. Linking his Korean-American roots in Brooklyn to a sorghum and bourbon-fueled reinvention in the deep South, Lee's made "connections where others see contradictions" in food, cooking, and culture. More
Rhubarb pie is a keenly seasonal dessert, memorable for both its flavor and summertime debut. Home Made Summer takes advantage of that with a recipe for a sweetly spiced pie starring the stalk, supported by a cast of nutmeg, cinnamon, orange zest and almond paste. More
Jelly? For dessert? But of course. Forget boxed flavors; sparkling wine and elderflower syrup give this Home Made Summer dessert plenty of adult flavor. More
Creamy, refreshing, tangy and sweet are key words for summer dessert. Home Made Summer combines them all into one cheesecake. Coconut and lime come together to make a unique cheesecake with a crunchy cookie crust. More
Though Home Made Summer has plenty of recipes for drinks, only one has crossed into dessert territory. With chewy sweet bits of fig and that familiar taste of vermouth, this is a cocktail you can linger over—in a different way. More
Unlike its sisters (the acclaimed Home Made and Home Made Winter), Home Made Summer was made to entertain. It's written as an homage to the summers van Boven and her husband have spent in Provence, surrounded by friends, family, and ludicrously fresh produce. More
Fruit tarts are simple in concept, but not in execution. This recipe from Old School Comfort Food circumvents having to make tart dough and filling in favor of crisp tuile shells and macerated strawberries sandwiching spoonfuls of sour cream. More
A messier version of the Hungarian seven-layer Dobos Torte, this cake combines the classic flavors of chocolate and caramel, suspending them between moist layers of yellow cake. Old School Comfort Food gives the recipe. More
Described as a "bowl of comfort", this cornmeal-based, molasses-sweetened, spiced soft bready pudding bridges the gap between sunshine and gloom. More
It doesn't get much simpler or more indulgent than a fresh doughnut. Being able to make your own is a must for any aspiring home pastry chef. Old School Comfort Food shares chef Alex's recipe for fluffy, sugar-encrusted doughnuts filled with tangy jam and accompanied by a creamy vanilla sauce. It took her dozens of attempts to develop a method that, according to her, works every time. You just need to make it once. More
Old School Comfort Food: The Way I Learned To Cook is the tangible product of a lifetime of experiments, effort, and discovery. From cutting her teeth under chef Larry Forgione, to Guy Savoy and Daniel Boulud's kitchens, to teaching at the Culinary Institute, and running the show at Butter, chef Guarnaschelli has played the role of student and teacher, consumer and chef. These recipes represent some of that journey. More
La Boulange: Cafe Cooking at Home delivers a fuss-free recipe for utterly charming meringue islands floating in pools of crème and drizzled with just-warm caramel sauce. More
Chocolate, vanilla, coconut, and meringue all come together to make these dome from La Boulange Cookbook: Cafe Cooking at Home More
Named after the reading glasses they resemble, these lunettes from La Boulange Cookbook: Cafe Cooking at Home boast two kinds of jam between crumbly cookie squares. More
If you've had your fill of dainty pastel melt-in-your-mouth jam sandwich cookies, these macarons from La Boulange: Cafe Cooking at Home are a rustic breath of fresh air, composed of nothing more complicated than hazelnut or almond meal, egg whites, and sugar. More
In 1999, Pascal Rigo opened his first San Francisco bakery and called it La Boulange. 14 years later, Rigo has an outlet in almost every neighborhood of San Francisco, plus cafes in Marin County and the East Bay. In La Boulange Bakery: Cafe Cooking At Home, Rigo's second cookbook, he shares recipes from this Bay Area favorite. More
In reality, Boston Cream Pie is not actually a pie. But with a pastry cream middle and two healthy slabs of vanilla cake dripping with chocolate ganache, is anyone really paying attention to the name? Mad Hungry Cravings has a recipe for this classic sweet. More
Quit pretending the muffin-shaped cake you picked up this morning is doing you any nutritional favors, and try these date walnut muffins from Mad Hungry Cravings. Whole wheat flour makes them filling, dates make them sweet. Add walnuts for crunch and you're good to go. More
Like pound cake, but lighter, this Greek yogurt cake from Mad Hungry Cravings gets its moistness from its namesake and floral sweetness from honey. Make this the night before a big breakfast. More
There's a chocolate chip cookie recipe for every day of the year. But adding banana makes these crispy, chocolate-studded treats something special. If you're the kind that adds chocolate chips to your banana bread, this is the cookie for you. More
Introducing Mad Hungry Cravings, a book that's as much a food guide as it is a collection of recipes. In her matter-of-fact way, Lucinda explains the state of food today, and provides solutions to overcoming fast-food reliance, from stocking the pantry to making a killer Boston Cream Pie. More
Proving that inspiration comes from the most interesting places, this recipe comes to Cookfight from New York Times fashion critic, Cathy Horyn. They are apparently a Swedish-American tradition from her hometown in Ohio. Traditional or not, they are a truly intriguing cookie, with a smoky sweetness that separates them from your standard 'snap. More
@simon: and the most delicate of Southern Belles.
@Funghi Porcini: Let me know how he likes it!
@Mr. Nick - Wink wink nudge nudge
@Anna Markow - brilliant!!
@Mr. Nick - I like your style.
@pabst - I really wasn't expecting the controversy, but I'll take it. Do let me know how it turns out when you do. And I agree with your point - opinions are reserved for matters of taste, and shouldn't be used for alarm. "Miniscule" is certainly a key word here.
@enkorat - I'm going to have to politely ask you to desist - you've linked to a Wikipedia page that describes a product that is not at all like the one in the recipe (a recipe which I'm not even sure you've read). Your opinion is fair game, as is everyone's, but as it's been expressed multiple times and in a way to cause alarm in my readers, that is unacceptable. Thank you.
@itadakimasu - Whoa! Haven't heard of that one. I've got to check it out.
@illone - I totally respect that! I've got the same averson to black licorice. Have a look at the dozens of other recipes I've posted - you're sure to find something you'll like.
@enkorat - The more immediate health risk would be the side effects of consuming two dozen cookies in order to recoup the amount of nicotine found in two tablespoons' worth of tobacco-infused water.
Stay tuned for further comment from a more expert source.
@Habit: Thank you so much! And let's not forget Thomas Keller serving Anthony Bourdain a mid-meal "coffee and cigarette", which was a tobacco-infused coffee custard.
mnrobb - I made these cookies with the tobacco-flavored topping.
Hi everyone,
There's been a fair amount of chatter as to the safety/flavor of these cookies. As the recipe states, the leaves are not boiled in the water, nor is a full cigar's worth of leaves used. A handful of leaves is steeped in water for ten minutes.
The topping is not chopped leaves, it's coconut shavings flavored with molasses and the water, as the description states. Having made the topping, I can attest to it definitely being edible. Especially because the entire topping for 24 cookies uses two tablespoons of the water - that equates to a few drops per cookie. Please, a toxic recipe would never make it into a cookbook of this caliber; and if it did, I'm knowledgeable enough not to feature it.
Nope, that's the pudding itself. See the recipe for details.
Welcome! It is pretty fantastic.
@therealchiffonade: Agreed!
"His" in the sense of "their", lest anyone think I believe only men are chefs :)
@nmharleyrider: Are you saying an Italian woman from New York should be concerned solely with New York Italian food? If you read the main book post, her mother was a cookbook editor who exposed her to food all around the world; this very recipe was made for her by her mom.
@bigbananafeet: You make good points. A chef is only as good as his horizons.
@hat19 - yes, you should be fine.
Yes, sprinkle the lunette tops with powdered sugar. And sorry about that, you spread 1/2 tablespoon of jam.
You are right - should have said NOT refrigerate. Edited to be more clear. Hope it turns out well, once you try it!
Awesome, glad it turned out well! Yes, the color could have come from a longer bake time or more brown butter. Taste is usually what matters most, wouldn't you say?
@melchelf: Aren't they? I'm glad you enjoyed the selection. It's always good to have ideas on hand when tomato plants start bearing fruit!
@DrGaellon - thank you!
Yes, apologies, there was a step missing. Fixed now.
Sweet and salty is always good! Nice idea. Try fleur de sel - it's got a lighter, flakier texture.
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I liked them just fine.